Funding programme

Horizon Europe is the EU’s key funding programme for research and innovation. Cluster 2 aims to strengthen European democratic values, including rule of law and fundamental rights, safeguarding cultural heritage, and promoting socio-economic transformations that contribute to inclusion and growth.

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Call overview

This call aims to strengthen and expand the existing European network of democracy researchers and practitioners to enhance collaboration, produce accessible policy recommendations, support capacity building, and promote democratic innovation and participation across all governance levels in Europe.

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Expected Outcome

Projects should contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:

• The networking and capacity-building work of the European network set up under HORIZON-CL2-2022-DEMOCRACY-02-01 is strengthened and augmented.
• Research and innovation communities in the field of democracy and civic deliberation and participation and citizenship education are less fragmented and better networked across Europe.
• Researchers in democracy, including rule of law; practitioners in civic participation and deliberation; communication experts; and public authorities and governments have access to research results, innovative methodologies, and tools in the field of democracy and civic deliberation and participation and citizenship education through networking events, accessible platforms, databases, knowledge repositories, advice and capacity building on enhancing diversity and inclusion, civic participation, civic and citizenship education and innovative and experimental deliberation processes at all governance levels.
• Public authorities and governments practice democratic innovation, by applying research results, innovative methodologies, and tools in the field of democracy and civic deliberation and participation and citizenship education which have been distilled by the network into useful “how-tos" and trainings for policymakers, public authorities, and governments.
• Policymakers and research funding organisations are provided with proposals for future research agendas in the field of democracy.

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Scope

Creating a network for researchers (including from SSH disciplines), policymakers and civil society organisations to collaborate to formulate policy recommendations and to create knowledge-sharing opportunities was the goal of the HORIZON-CL2-2022-DEMOCRACY-02-01 call topic: to support a necessary tool to strengthen and renew European democracy. The goal of this current call topic is to strengthen, augment, and pursue the work of the network of researchers in democracy together with practitioners of civic participation and deliberation and of citizenship education across Europe, previously set up. This network should contribute to the EU’s future policy to strengthen and renew democracy.

The selected proposal will establish an innovative successor network of democracy research organisations and practitioners of democratic innovation, which will:

• Produce policy recommendations to strengthen and renew democracy in all governance levels and democratic debate in Member States and Associated Countries, drawing on the existing body of knowledge. These recommendations must be accessible, publicly available, and well disseminated including through a central open access repository.
• Help policymakers in the EU and Associated Countries to design civic participation strategies for relevant policy areas, in conjunction with the European Commission’s Competence Centre on Participatory and Deliberative Democracy^[4] as relevant.
• Organise 2 retreats per year for policymakers from EU Member States, Associated Countries and EU institutions, targeting high-level officials, to learn and exchange from experts and peers on democratic strengthening and renewal, and encourage exchange on emerging or persisting challenges and threats to democracy, participation, and civic engagement.
• Design capacity building activities on inclusive participatory and deliberative forms of democracy at different governance levels, including training and knowledge sharing.
• Organise at least one conference on democratic innovations gathering researchers, practitioners, education bodies and EU and national policymakers.

The project should have a minimum duration of 36 months.

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Eligibility

To be eligible for funding, applicants must be established in one of the following countries:

• the Member States of the European Union, including their outermost regions;
• the Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs) linked to the Member States;
• countries associated to Horizon Europe;
• low- and middle-income countries.

See specifics in the General Annexes document, page 9.

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Consortium composition

Only legal entities forming a consortium are eligible to participate in actions provided that the consortium includes, as beneficiaries, three legal entities independent from each other and each established in a different country as follows:

• at least one independent legal entity established in a Member State; and
• at least two other independent legal entities, each established in different Member States or Associated Countries.

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Budget

The total indicative budget for the topic is EUR 3.50 million.